Together Toward Health supports communities impacted by COVID throughout California
Our Story
By the summer of 2020, it was clear that the COVID-19 pandemic required a massive and coordinated public health effort to not only stop the spread, but also prepare communities for longer-term health and resilience.
“We knew that we needed to act fast, and that we also had an opportunity to develop an infrastructure of support that could change the future of public health in California,” said Mary Pittman, president and CEO at the Public Health Institute (PHI). After a colleague at The California Endowment contacted Mary about an emerging coalition of funders committed to agile grant-making for COVID recovery efforts, PHI offered to provide fiscal sponsorship and operational support for the group. The Together Toward Health (TTH) initiative was formed.
Since August 2020, TTH has provided funding, coordination, support and counsel to community-based organizations in every single region across California. We have built essential bridges between local health departments and community leaders to successfully meet the needs of residents, workers and families through every step of this pandemic. Now, almost two years in, our work remains critical as we work to help increase vaccine access and uptake, and to help alleviate underlying health inequities across the state.
Our Approach
The TTH model is expansive, and sets a state and national precedent for what works.
At TTH, we know that in order to truly create an equitable COVID recovery that helps those communities who have been hit hardest, we must ensure that all communities have equal access to information, care, recovery and vaccination. Working within these communities presents unique challenges; some are rural, some lack reliable internet access, some have faced decades of medical discrimination, creating atmospheseres of mistrust. California’s communities also speak many languages, and represent many cultures.
So we know that there is simply no way for a top-down or one-size-fits-all approach to be effective. This work must be led by those who best understand the needs of California’s diverse communities: those who live, work, and are rooted within them.
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The TTH team helps create partnerships between government players, including county health departments, and community-based organizations, education, philanthropy, and private sector businesses, to ensure that communities across California who have been hit hardest by COVID can recover both physically and economically.
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Community-based organizations are crucial players in slowing and stopping the spread of COVID-19, especially within underserved communities. Community-based organizations have a unique ability to reach, earn trust, and be culturally responsive and accessible for the communities they know best, making them the ideal leaders and drivers of the work that's needed to ensure an equitable pandemic recovery.
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We take a creative and agile approach to funding, offering capacity-building and workforce development support as well as unrestricted financial resources with reduced reporting requirements to the many locally-rooted organizations we support.
TTH funds come with minimal strings attached, because we know that onerous reporting structures and restrictions on how funds are spent conflict with our equity aims.
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PHI brings deep expertise in partnerships between state agencies and local health departments; successful collaborations with local health initiatives, community members and community-based groups across the state; experience developing information-sharing infrastructure for county-specific implementation; and program evaluation and adaptation capacity.
“Even more than the investments, the way you have partnered has been invaluable to our efforts. You have made yourself available at every turn and every time we have needed you. You’ve been a terrific thought partner to us. And through this listening and working together, your investments have and will continue to leverage and be catalytic to the significant government resources devoted to this effort.”
— Kate Anderson, Director, LA Center for Strategic Public-Private Partnerships
TTH Funding Is Provided for…
Community Outreach
Enhancing community appropriate communication, public awareness and health education to increase the adoption of behavioral change that reduces the spread of COVID-19, and awareness and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.
Focused Engagement
Supporting focused efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in impacted and/or highly susceptible populations.
Workforce Development
Facilitating new workforce and professional development opportunities for culturally and linguistically competent Californians most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizational Capacity-Building
Providing support services and training opportunities to TTH-funded community-based organizations and their staff to support organizational sustainability, build capacity, improve professional development prospects, and strengthen the overall public health infrastructure.
State and Local Health Agency Capacity
Helping California interrupt and reduce the community spread of COVID-19 by supporting and enhancing the capacity of state and local health agencies to inform impacted communities and perform time sensitive testing, case finding/contact tracing, and support vaccine rollout.
The Together Toward Health Team
Susan Watson, MPH
Esther Rivera, MPH
Erin Yee
Isabella Kaser, MPH
Rachel Shewmaker
Tiffany Angeles, MPA
Christina Lane
Aver Wishum
Our Funding Partners
TTH is made possible by funding from major philanthropic organizations.
Foundations supporting Together Toward Health include The Ballmer Group, Blue Shield of California Foundation,
The California Health Care Foundation, Crankstart Foundation, Genentech, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, Medtronic Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Sierra Health Foundation, Sunlight Giving, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation,
The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Tipping Point Community, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, John & Marcia Goldman Foundation,
Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and the Weingart Foundation.
Together Toward Health is a program of the Public Health Institute (PHI).
Visit PHI’s website to learn more about the organization.